RTAB Map dies with code -11 when run using two web cameras

Question

We are running RTAB map with two web cameras with the following launch file.

<launch>
    <!-- Choose visualization -->
    <arg name="rviz" default="true" />

    <!-- Run the ROS package stereo_image_proc for image rectification and disparity computation -->
    <group ns="stereo">
        <node pkg="stereo_image_proc" type="stereo_image_proc" name="stereo_image_proc">
            <remap from="left/image_raw"    to="left/image_raw"/>
            <remap from="left/camera_info"  to="left/camera_info"/>
            <remap from="right/image_raw"   to="right/image_raw"/>
            <remap from="right/camera_info" to="right/camera_info"/>
            <param name="disparity_range" value="128"/>
            <param name="approximate_sync"        type="bool" value="True"/>
            <param name="queue_size"        type="int" value="10"/>
        </node>

        
      <!-- Disparity to depth -->
        <node pkg="nodelet" type="nodelet" name="disparity2depth" args="standalone rtabmap_ros/disparity_to_depth">
            <param name="disparity_range" value="128"/>
            <param name="approx_sync"  type="bool" value="true"/>
            <param name="queue_size"        type="int" value="100"/>
        </node>
    </group>
  
    
  
    <group ns="rtabmap">
        <node pkg="rtabmap_ros" type="stereo_odometry" name="stereo_odometry" output="screen">
            <remap from="left/image_rect"       to="/stereo/left/image_rect_color"/>
            <remap from="right/image_rect"      to="/stereo/right/image_rect_color"/>
            <remap from="left/camera_info"      to="/stereo/left/camera_info"/>
            <remap from="right/camera_info"     to="/stereo/right/camera_info"/>
            <param name="subscribe_rgbd"  type="bool" value="false"/>
            <!-- <remap from="rgbd_image"            to="/stereo/rgbd_image"/> -->

            <!-- Published topic odom is converted into stereo_odometry -->
            <remap from="odom"                  to="/stereo_odometry"/>

            <param name="approx_sync"  type="bool" value="true"/>
            <param name="frame_id"        type="string" value="base_link"/>
            <param name="odom_frame_id"   type="string" value="odom"/>
            <param name="publish_tf"        type="bool" value="true"/>
            <param name="wait_for_transform"        type="string" value="true"/>
            <param name="queue_size"        type="int" value="100"/>
            
            <param name="Odom/Strategy"      type="string" value="0"/> <!-- 0=Frame-to-Map, 1=Frame=to=Frame -->
            <param name="Vis/EstimationType" type="string" value="1"/> <!-- 0=3D->3D 1=3D->2D (PnP) -->
            <param name="Vis/CorType" value="0"/> <!-- Correspondences: 0=Features Matching, 1=Optical Flow -->
            <!-- maximum features map size, default 2000 -->
            <param name="OdomF2M/MaxSize" type="string" value="1000"/> 
            <!-- maximum features extracted by image, default 1000 -->
            <param name="Vis/MaxFeatures" type="string" value="600"/>
            <param name="Vis/MinInliers"     type="string" value="5"/>
            <param name="Stereo/MaxDisparity"  type="string" value="128"/>
            <param name="Stereo/OpticalFlow"  type="string" value="false"/>

        </node>
        
        <!-- Visual SLAM -->
        <node name="rtabmap" pkg="rtabmap_ros" type="rtabmap" output="screen" args="--delete_db_on_start">
            <param name="subscribe_depth"     type="bool" value="true"/>
            <param name="subscribe_rgbd"     type="bool" value="false"/>
            <param name="subscribe_scan" type="bool" value="false"/>
    
            <remap from="rgb/image"       to="/stereo/left/image_rect_color"/>
            <remap from="rgb/camera_info" to="/stereo/left/camera_info"/>
            <remap from="depth/image"     to="/stereo/depth"/>
    
            <remap from="odom" to="/stereo_odometry"/>
    
            <param name="frame_id"    type="string" value="/base_link"/>
            <param name="queue_size"  type="int"    value="2000"/>
            <param name="approx_sync" type="bool"   value="true"/>
    
            <param name="Vis/MinInliers" type="string" value="12"/>
        </node>
    </group>

    <!-- Visualisation RVIZ --> 
    <node if="$(arg rviz)" pkg="rviz" type="rviz" name="rviz" args="-d $(find rtabmap_ros)/launch/config/demo_stereo_outdoor.rviz"/>

  </launch>

Our TF transform tree has base_link -> stereo/left, base_link -> stereo/right, odom -> base_link

After running rostopic hz stereo/depth stereo/left/image_rect_color stereo/left/camera_info we get the following output as well.

We are new to using rtab map. If someone can offer a help it would be much appreciated.

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 05 '22 at 14:21

We finally found the issue. For any of those who are having rtab map odometry or mapping issues with stereo or RGBD sensors like Kinect 360 build RTAB Map from the source.The same launch file worked after the build from source.

Reason for this could be older binaries in the servers. Guide to manually build rtabmap - Click Here to Build RTAB Map yourself

BTW you can use two USB web cams (YOU DON'T EVEN NEED BRANDED ONES LIKE LOGITECH OURS WERE UNBRANDED CHINESE ONES) as a stereo sensor. You can either sync them using a small code or you can use approx_sync parameter to true. How ever keep in mind that you have to configure TF transformations from base_link to camera_link and camera_link to individual cameras (left and right) as well to make it work. AND BEWARE Sometimes stereo setup like this may not give you a highly accurate map or odometry.

You can also try with a kinect 360 which is really cheap these days.

RTAB Map dies with code -11 when run using two web cameras

1 Answers1